Hi Kraken, we are 16 miles south of Sacramento. If you are in our area come for a tour. Just PM me as soon as you know when.

I recently had flashing lights at the perimeter of my vision. The clinic doctor told me it was an eye migraine. He sent me to the specialist who confirmed it. I was told it was common but I'd never heard of it. I only had it one time and never again but it was so weird to see fireworks. I'm glad you recovered. Wendy

Your migraine diagnosis is new to me. Apparently
my ophthalmologist passed over that possibility due
to my co-complaint of floating "seaweed" objects in
my vision.

That doesn't improve my opinion of that ER physician
a bit, though. It seems now that there are two fairly
common maladies that could cause at least the sparks
at the sides of our vision, and despite their common
occurrence he hadn't even heard of either one.

Yes, we definitely should arrange to get together some
time soon, since we're so close together, and seem
rather compatible on this thread, at least. My own
schedule is rather erratic, though, because I work in
the unpredictable business of caregiving, so I'll just
have to let you know when an opportunity comes up.

Kraken

PS--I spell my screen name without a C because I've
taken it from the legendary Norse sea monster which
now seems to be based on the giant and colossal squid
that live in the southernmost oceans, including the
South Pacific. That's pretty close to Tiki territory.

Since last summer, kraken has had an unexpected and unexplainable
weight loss of 40 pounds; much of it muscle tissue. Also tiredness,
severe weakness and stumbling. More than a dozen blood tests have
shown nothing, 4 different physicians are perplexed, so kraken was
told to do urine tests involving two separate 24-hour urine collections,
which kept kraken confined to quarters for two days. (Would you want
to wander around carrying an orange two-quart plastic jug, shuddering
every time it looked as though someone was going to ask you "What's
in the jug?") This too produced nothing, as did a shoulders-to-pelvis
CAT scan.

Time for endoscopy at both ends. As initial prep for the colonoscopy
portion of the proceedings kraken was on a restricted diet for four
days, followed by a day of nothing but clear liquids. Then came a
laxative bowel purge using 4 doses of Dulcolax and 14 doses of
Miralax. The latter was supposed to last 3 to 5 hours but actually lasted 15.

On to the gastroenterology lab, where kraken was told both scopings would
be done with the same probe. Before kraken could run screaming down the
hall, he was assured that the upper endoscopy would be done first. Only
things found were kraken's known bowel diverticula, which kraken at times
reflected on as he spent 48 hours recovering from the anesthesia.

Upshot---kraken has been able to restore quite a bit of strength but no
weight by physical exercise. Tiredness has been notably reduced by herbal
concoctions. As of this moment he has no idea what the problem is, nor
even wether it was a passing thing or is still lurking somewhere down there.

Kraken, hopefully it was just a passing thing and you are on the mend now. I have about 10 or 15 extra pounds that I would gladly donate if you want to build that reserve back up?
_________________ATTENTION MEMBERS! After your Friday Night Debauchery, please be sure to skim the hot tub in the Grand Ceremonial Forum of Mystery. Thank you - The Management

Hi Kraken, are they going to do any more tests? It seems that this has been serious enough that just saying, Oh Well we don't know what's wrong is not enough. If you have lost muscle mass then you must eat protein and do some weight lifting to regain it. Keep going back. We lost Dan's dad because they kept giving him iron for anemia when he had blood loss from a small bowel cancer. I'm glad they did a torso CT but how about a whole body scan in Nuclear Medicine? Keep us informed. Best Wishes always, Wendy
_________________

You bet I'm going to insist on deeper investigation
of this problem, once I overcome a side issue; the
anesthetic they gave me for my scopings never
completely wore off. It's been two weeks now and
I'm still having memory problems (short and long
term), stumbling, lack of peripheral attention and
trouble concentrating.

These are standard symptoms of the anesthetic
Versed (midazolam) so a consensus of myself,
two physicians and an advice nurse are sure that
Versed caused the problem but is not still in my
body; only its effect on my brain is lingering. But
as for how long the partial effect will be with me,
the physicians can only speculate weeks to months.
This kind of holdover is so rare that nobody knows
much about it.

So for a while I can't go back to working as a caregiver.
My creativity is not dampened by this, so I'll probably
do some writing. I was previously a technical
magazine writer---to see samples of my published
work, google my real-world name, Walter Zintz.

Only bright spot in all this. One of the doctors is
someone I've always liked but haven't heard from in
seven years.

Hi kraken, I haven't been looking here for awhile so I was pleased to see you have posted. I did look up your profiles. Unless you are a woman named Walter all the photos I saw were wrong.

I know what you mean about the after affects of things given for tests. I lost my sense (for 3 days each time) of taste after MRI's years apart. Now its in my medical records which contrast agent causes it to happen to me so they can give me an alternative. Maybe you shouldn't have the same anesthesia medication next time. Since you care for people with dementia this must be a scary time for you. I hope in the days since you posted you have noticed an improvement.

I'm glad you are not going to stop until they figure out why you have the weight loss. Maybe you have a tape worm they are still a problem in some countries.

I am definitely a man, with a substantial beard. If you direct
me to the profiles that say otherwise, I'll try to correct them.

My memory problem keeps improving, but the rate of uplift
has become very slow. Still hoping it will eventually get to
unnoticeability. The physicians I've spoken with seem to
think this is quite likely.

Definitely will reject the anesthetic Versed (pronounced
vur-SED) in the future. Don't expect to need any more
anesthetics to further investigate my original problem. Don't
know just what I will need, unfortunately.

Meanwhile, let's get this thread hopping again! It started off
dripping with blood and grue, then faded to colds and sniffles,
and now carries just about nothing. Tiki Central people are
devil-may-care enough that we must be involved in plenty of
physical catastrophes, and I've yet to hear of physical sufferers
who don't like to complain about their medical afflictions.

Dan has re-torn the meniscus in his knee which was repaired last year. He may be up for another surgery.
First he is trying cortisone to calm it down.
look how long the needle is before it goes in.
If this doesn't help with the pain then Dan will have another surgery.
We love Dr. Hong. He's done knee repairs for Dan and I so we know him well.

Tried to post my status update here earlier, but it
disappeared into the machinery somehow. Here
it is again in briefer form.

Turns out that my original set of problems (at
least according to WebMD) was caused by not
having my diabetes under good control. I switched
my diabetes medicine from Metformin to Glipizide,
and the original problems mostly subsided. Now
I've got to get rid of the remaining effects of the
original symptoms (e.g. rebuild my strength and
balance), clear out the memory problems from the
Versed anesthetic, and deal with the slow but steady
worsening of my hand tremors. All this ought to
keep me busy for a while.

Horrifying to see that long, long needle going into
Dan's knee! I hope he gets some relief out of it.

kraken

PS--Please excuse the (now corrected) mistake in
the name of my earlier diabetes medicine. My memory
is even worse than I'd remembered. (Joke intended.)